Dr. Fred Battenfield

Dr. Fred Battenfield

Professor of Sport Management

Dr. Fred Battenfield begins his seventh year as professor of sport management at North Greenville University. He was promoted to full professor in April, 2011. He earned the Ph.D. degree in sport management at Florida State University in August, 2004 and his dissertation is entitled “An Ethnographic Study of the Culture of Communication in the Sports Information Office in a Division I-A Athletic Program.” His research interests include the culture of communication in college sports, sports public relations and media, qualitative inquiry in sport management, ambush marketing in the Olympic Games and communication and marketing in intercollegiate athletics.

Dr. Battenfield has published several scholarly articles regarding his research in sport communication and marketing. He recently completed a book chapter for a sport communication anthology entitled The Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication. He also had his journal submission “The Culture of Communication Among Sport Information Professionals” published in the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, of which he is a regular reviewer. He has also been published in the Women in Sport and Activity Journal, The Sport Journal and in the 2005 proceedings of the International Conference on Sports and Entertainment Business. He has presented his research internationally at NASSM, the Sport Marketing Association Conference, and the International Conference on Sport & Entertainment, and at several other regional sport management conferences. He recently participated in a first of its kind seminar on sport communication at the 2010 NASSM Conference in Tampa, Fla. entitled, The Present and Future of Sport Communication: A Roundtable Discussion.

Prior to returning to graduate school, Dr. Battenfield spent 22 years as a college sports information director. He was assistant athletic director for community relations at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL, and previously served as sports information director at Rollins College (Winter Park, FL) and The University of Texas at San Antonio. He was assistant SID at Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin. As an SID, he won 18 national publications awards from the College Sports Information Directors of America.

He earned his Master’s degree at the United States Sports Academy, a Bachelor of Journalism degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and an Associate’s Degree from Yavapai (AZ) College.

A long-time volleyball enthusiast, his background includes working at the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games volleyball competitions. He was the producer for Olympic volleyball at the ’96 Games in Atlanta; press attaché for the U.S.A. volleyball teams in ’88 in Seoul, Korea, and served as assistant press venue chief for volleyball in ’84 in Los Angeles. Battenfield served as a staff participant at four U.S. Olympic Festival volleyball competitions. He is a former national volleyball referee, and coached men’s and women’s college volleyball at The University of Texas at San Antonio among his various volleyball pursuits.

In addition to the Olympics, Fred has participated in numerous national and international sporting events, including the World Cup, Olympic qualifying events and has also been a television and radio commentator.

Fred resides in Greer with his wife Katie and daughter Julianna and son Rob.

"North Greenville University is a co-educational liberal arts institution which provides opportunities for higher education in a biblically sound Christ-centered environment and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees in over 30 fields of study."

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